NYLAG’s Anna Luft spoke to City Limits about the delays and denials public housing tenants face when they request to be transferred to another apartment due to domestic violence, accessibility issues, and other safety concerns. The PACT program, which moved thousands of public housing apartments to private management, has only complicated this issue.
“Anna Luft, a supervising attorney with the New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG), said that one of the major issues with PACT transfers is that tenants are being told they can not transfer out of their bundle. A ‘bundle’ is a group of PACT developments that share the sane private management company or team, and are typically located in the same area.
“’But even for those who don’t need to move to a particular location, they may still face significant complications when they need a reasonable accommodation transfer to an accessible unit or a ground floor unit because of mobility impairments,’ Luft said.
“Similarly, tenants who live in standard NYCHA housing are unable to transfer into a development that’s been converted to PACT. Luft found that residents who submitted transfer requests to another development before it was converted to PACT are having their applications canceled, despite being previously approved.”
Read the full piece by Tatyana Turner in City Limits from May 31, 2023.
